New Hokkaido series up at brianscottpeterson.com

Hokkaido is a post from: Zōkyō

Here’s a little excerpt from a piece I am working on for it:

For more about it, check out magnesiumphotos.com.

Magnesium Photos is a post from: Zōkyō

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

We waited in line for literally hours to get to the top. It was of course very cool but the waiting was buzzkill. I think I may have take more photos, in fact, I’m quite sure I took more photos of this place but they are not developed yet. After we visited the castle, we visited the adjacent gardens.

FYI: Himeji-jo

Leaving Himeji-jo is a post from: Zōkyō

Under the roof of a king…

王の屋根の下で is a post from: Zōkyō

We made it up to Himeji Castle and took the classic tourist shot. It was one of those, “Excuse me, would you please take our photo.” I always hand pick these folks, I won’t just ask anybody, but it just goes to show that you can’t judge a book by its cover because despite handing this guy a simply point and shoot camera, with all the settings right, he still managed to completely botch it. I cropped the hell outta this to get the frame I wanted in the first place, hence the super lo-fi. More Himeji photos to come…

The Tourists is a post from: Zōkyō

The next morning we started off at Ikuta Shrine. The Shinto shrine is located in the Chūō Ward of Kobe, Japan, and is possibly among the oldest shrines in the country.

According to Nihon Shoki, it was founded by the Empress Jingū at the beginning of the 3rd century AD to enshrine the Kami Wakahirume, and was used as the base for a festival welcoming warriors back from the latest attempt to invade Korea. It now apparently carries a reputation of being a place at which NOT to marry as many famous Japanese couples who have been married here have since divorced.

Ikuta Shrine is a post from: Zōkyō

We had a long day wondering walking up and down Kobe’s hills. Heading back to our hotel, we stopped for a glass of red wine at a really cool place called “Diente Diente” before we did. Red walls, a great big bar, and friendly staff, with “Coffee and Cigarettes” playing on the screen. Perfect little hole in the wall in a really cool neighborhood. Well worth stopping by for a cafe and some window shopping on a trip to Kobe.

We still had two more days ahead of us, so we went home to make a little place for the next day then crashed.

Night Cap is a post from: Zōkyō

Meandering around.

Stray Dogs of Kobe is a post from: Zōkyō

Then up to Ninomiya is a post from: Zōkyō

Then we walked over to Sannomiya Station area and just strolled around, taking photos, and getting a feel for the town. We stumbled upon the Akasen district, and walked upon and down the main street a couple of times, dipping down into the back alleys just to see what was there; the same as usual: little member’s only bars, cabaret clubs, love hotels, late night noodle shops, and so on. On our way there, we had asked a few hotels if there was any room in the inn and we’re getting a little discouraged after three or four no’s. The iPhone “around me” app was surprisingly hugely helpful. With it we easily navigated from one hotel to the other, even love hotels, and not to mention bars, attractions and so on. I was amazed about how much info it had on Kobe, Japan of all places. So finally we settled in on a place, took a nice onsen, bought a can of beer from the vending machine, and formulated our plan for the next day.

Sannomiya Station is a post from: Zōkyō